The 1st Step To Turn A Passion Into A Career

****Your why is bigger than discomfort, than inconvenience, than risk. Your why is the space between success and failure.****

Does Your Why Make You Cry?

By: Kristi L. Jackson

It’s really sad to run into entrepreneurs who are busted, worn out, purposeless, and who’ve given up. I wonder what their purpose is, or do they know it at all. Usually, they have tons of talent, connections, skills, and personality dripping from their fingertips, but they are struggling everyday just to muster up a smile. When I ask, “Why? Why are you doing this business? Why are you sinking your life savings into it? Why are you leaving your children, your family and trudging over to your office at 6 am?” Most can’t answer that question. They have never located, formulated or discovered their ultimate why……..

Your why can’t be money. There are a million ways to make money. It can’t be just because you have the skill. It needs to be more. Your why is not what you do, but why you do it. Why you are here, what is your purpose? Determining your why, determines your success and knowing your why, determines your happiness on the way there.

Determining Your Why

* To leave a legacy to your children – It is said that, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”. Is this important to you? Do you want your children to have a certain lifestyle?

* To change the world – Do you see a significant problem in the world that YOU can fix, change, or improve upon?

* To change your past – Your past is smoke, your presence is progressive and your future is being crafted from your dreams. You are not your past, and don’t have to live in it.

* To create a lifestyle – Do you want to create a life where you and your family can travel and discover parts of the world together without worrying about money?

* Freedom – Do you want to be in total control of your life, your work, how much you work or how your family is cared for?

Crafting Your Why

1. Not a cliche’….. but, if you could work without worrying about money or bills, what would you do?

2. The activities you’ve been working on for the last 6 months, are they furthering your why? No? Then what activities can you do within the next 6 months that will?

3. During what life moments were you happiest? What were you doing?

4. What can you talk about passionately for hours?

5. Get a piece of paper and write the answers to the following questions: what you do, what you want to do and the reason you want to do it. Be as specific as possible and write as long as you need to. Your reasons are important, and the one that makes you cry…….this is your why.

Leading with Your Why

Crafting a powerful “WHY” can help guide your business choices, products you’d like to create, collaborations you’d like to make and where you ultimately take your company. Creating and growing a successful business is great, but determining your why is a very important first step.

Finding my own why totally metamorphosed my thinking, crushed my “reasons”, dissolved my shyness, increased my happiness and my purpose appeared. I’ve always been close to my family, but after a serious illness with one of them, this is when I truly discovered my why.

My why is so much stronger than me, it brings me to tears and THEN to POWERFUL action. When you are actively pursuing your purpose and your why, you tackle each project with energy, with a can do, no matter what, play full out even when you’re tired mindset.

Don’t be confused…….Desires can be subtle. Passion can die, but your why leaps over boundaries, breaks down the hows, kills the obstacles. Your why is bigger than discomfort, than inconvenience, than risk. Your why is the space between success and failure. Find it.

9 comments on “The 1st Step To Turn A Passion Into A Career”

Wonderful article Kristi! I appreciate the way you clearly outline the steps to determining your “why”, crafting your “why” and leading with your “why”! You certainly have me engaged in the questions listed in “crafting your why”!
Blessings, Donna

I love this site. I am glad I saw your article in the group i3powernetworkglobal on fb, I will be following you. Keep setting high standards for many of us to know that there is another level above that we can reach for.

You are exactly right Lori. When you find yourself doing tasks that waste time, when you find yourself not delegating as much as you should, when you find you are not focusing enough and wasting time on projects that are not moving you forward, remember you why. Ask yourself, is this moving me closer or further from my ultimate goal?

Thank you Renee and Elizabeth. It was my goal to explain it exactly how I was feeling it AND what I did with myself AND some of my consulting clients to get them closer to their goals and then to ACTION!!!